Same ol´same ol´

I know this has been discussed to death but I am really harta with people posting with no context. Maybe we should post in each forum a definition and example of what context is. Does anyone think there is anything we can do to improve? It is so annoying. I know, just ignore those people, but that is difficult. What do you think?

I got tired, as did my English Only colleagues, of trying to extract context, drip by tiny drip, from people who don't seem to realize that there is a correlation between the quality of a question and the likelihood of a worthwhile answer. A couple of weeks ago we posted an announcement in English Only:

Lack of background and context will cause thread to be closed. We began gently, reminding people to read the announcement. Then we started closing threads. The foreros have been wonderful collaborators, acting in consort with the mods.

It's not perfect, but it's getting a little better. We also posted definitions, lots of them, of context in our one sticky message.
The mods for other forums are looking over our shoulders, to see if this is helping a lot. I wouldn't brag that it has solved the problem, but it is helping some.

Feel free to hit the red triangle, and just type No context. At the same time, you are welcome to write, in either SP or EN, a firm but friendly message that threads without context are defective, and will produce fewer and less worthwhile replies.

I know this has been discussed to death but I am really harta with people posting with no context. Maybe we should post in each forum a definition and example of what context is. Does anyone think there is anything we can do to improve? It is so annoying. I know, just ignore those people, but that is difficult. What do you think?

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I think I need an example of that! Could you please give me some context? I mean, show me an example! Please, didn't you do your homework first!?

Lack of background and context will cause thread to be closed. We began gently, reminding people to read the announcement. Then we started closing threads. The foreros have been wonderful collaborators, acting in consort with the mods.

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My two cents are that the stickies at the top of each forum would be more effective if there were only ONE STICKY, rather than 2-4 of them. The info in them should be combined and made more concise. It doesn't need to be as insistent as the one in EO, but I think streamlining the stickies might make them more readable and....

My two cents are that the stickies at the top of each forum would be more effective if there were only ONE STICKY, rather than 2-4 of them. The info in them should be combined and made more concise.

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This is off-topic, but I wholeheartedly agree with you. I have reduced the number of stickies in two of "my" forums (Arabic and German) to 2 (1 would be ideal, but it's not always possible); something similar was done in the English Only forum and I followed suit. The Hebrew forum will eventually undergo a similar change, and I've been trying to persuade the mods of other forums to consolidate their stickies as well. I imagine that they will do so if it is feasible. I think we all agree that more than 1-2 stickies makes for a very unsightly main forum page.

I agree there are too many. People immediately go to what interests them and if there were only one sticky, possibly they would open it. As it is, they may read one, but four? I´m talking about the Spanish-English forum.

A couple of threads back I was critisizing Paulfromitaly on his lack of temperance and zero-tolerance attitude when he brought up a topic very closely related to this one...

My God, how things change after only a few posts!

I'm not anyone significant in this forum by any measure, but for what my tiny participation is worth, I have actually begun feeling burdened to open (even for reading only) those threads that clearly lack the context needed for a worthy answer. It is amazing how you can actually skim through and read the titles and know by them what will be on the inside!.. I told this to one chicky from Romania and she went all postal on me! "Why would you inquire about my background, and what do you need more context for? I don't see how that would be related to my question" [obviously she didn't since she took it personal]... Insólito!
I never reported that one, but I sure gave her a firm [yet, gentle] tug to the jacket and invoked the law and WR powers upon her as kindly as I could... She just seemed to be mildly impacted by it, hardly making any ammendments to her post, and in the end I was left with my "close to become 'senior' then" frustration...

And yes, I guess I'm just adding my 1 cent, (really, it doesn't even amount to 2 cents), to a much discussed issue here where the real Seniors, the Veterans, the Ol' Sages have all the experience and all the "pelos de la burra en la mano" to speak all those things they speak about with as much background and insight as they possess.. but I promise: I'm just venting from reading all your posts (in this and other threads related) and keeping silent in frustration: THESE CRAZY, NO-CONTEXT PEOPLE SHOULD BE BANNED!.. FOREVER!

Hehe.. [regaining my composture] ...All this to say I am totally with Daniel and with Desert-Firey Chicken in that only time will tell whether the experiment in the EO forum was effective enough that it will be the strategy to follow for all other forums [mainly the SPEN forum] or just more patience will need to be exercised on our part... cause we might just be kidding ourselves with all this discussing whether stickies should be this-that-or-the-other, while newbies (and some of us rookies, and even some "Señores" still post stupidity all over the forums... (what grim horizon)

Thanks to Sr. Kellogg for the "rules o' postin" and the links: I was very happy to discover them: Precious tools!

I think the problem with people not providing context, not writing in standard form and not attempting the translation first stems not from the way the stickies are worded, but from the fact that many people simply DON'T read the stickies. How many times have we all just clicked "I accept" on some sort of Internet agreement/sign-up without actually reading all the fine print and rules?

I think it's a problem that we will have to solve by simply reminding people, and ignoring those who don't help us help them, as annoying as it may be. Afterall, those who don't offer context are the ones that lose in the end.

Also, maybe in the "post reply" window for the translations forums, it would be helpful if in red letters, above the text box, someone put a short reminder along the lines of "Remember to give context/use the word in a sentence (for those who don't understand 'context') and attempt the translation first.)